V23:*changed Oxford Shire to just Oxford on the small map*moved apart Derby and Nottingham on both small and large*moved Surrey a bit to the right on the large map*changed the "All ports connect each..." on the large map and made it like it is on the small map

V19:* reduced opacity for oxford on the minimap* moved terit names so they would better fit the terits* added a little glow to the terit names* tweaked the steam* reworded the excess steam part in the legend

V181. remove port from chesshire. and reduce northwest bonus to just +12. move engine from surry to berkshire and move the balloon from berkshire to surry3. move engine from sommerset to wiltshire4. move engine from leicester to nottingham

V16:*to be honest i kinda like the new darker continents so maybe a compromise would work best. so i have lowered the opacity they're now not so dark but still visible.*replaced the top decorative balloon with another ship*the oxford in the minimap does not have a white fill. it has a white stroke but the terit is so small that the stroke actually fills it i reduced it by 1 px and hopefully it looks better now. if i reduce it more then it will disappear. as for the big oxford i increased the opacity.*fixed the holes in the paper*changed bright colours to muted ones.*made some text changes in the legend*rearranged the legend to make everything more intuitive and user-friendly

v14:*reduced size for both large and small*moved around icons and names *shifted and rotated continents for a tighter fit*increased the legend space to include the poem in small version*split the poem in 2 halves for easier readingLarge:

*changed continent bonuses*norfolk port became a balloon*more shadow under the paper*tweaked the shadow of the title*placed 2 neutral in cumberland*7 different steam icons. choose one please. - i still like the realistic steam in Kent.

*changed the poem back to black colour*increase the font size for the legend and the poem. hopefully it should be perfectly visible now.*changed the terit names to fit those from 19th century.*fixed legend border overlap*fixed legend border pixelization*made the minimap less bright and less pixelated.

V8:*toned down the brown burn in the middle*fixed the cuts in the lower right of the map*fixed the strong crease near the Isle of Wight*added various fonts (each continent has a different font, so a total of 8, please chose your favourite)

V7:*tweaked continent names to make them less chunky*incorporated middlesex into essex. this way the total number of terits is 39 and 15 start neutral so that leaves exactly 24 to be divided at start-up. 24 is much better than *25, that's why i eliminated 1 terit.*moved around some steam icons to avoid having steam resource in a port/balloon terit*added army numbers to test visibility of different colour (i think it's ok)*added neutral armies so people can easily form an idea about the gameplay.*changed east bonus from 5 to 4.

DONE:*added wrapped continent names - i think it looks much better than before. thanks for the suggestion cairns.*made thinner radiating lines*moved around terit names and icons to make room for army numbers

DONE:*steam icons are more visible*removed continent names*better blended the continent colours*changed bonuses*oxford can bombard any territory *added ports and balloons to each continent*each engine and steam will start with 2 neutral *oxford starts with 5 neutral

V4 comes with a big updateDone:*new terits (40) - a fantasy England torn apart by Evil Dr.DiM (:P) from his laboratory in Oxford.*new bonuses - (need discussing)*various artwork*map is now playable by up to 8 people

To Do:*i still need to add some lines and various artwork on the map itself (some ships, waves, dragons, etc) to make it even more realistic.*balance gameplay - discuss bonuses *get permission for current size

V3.* redid the terits to better express what i plan to do.* added baloons ports and various stuff around the map* changed bonuses and rules (see map legend)* the number of terits is now 44 but i will surely lower it in the next version by uniting some smaller terits. probably going to drop to 36

the map is just for 2-4 players.each player starts with an engine terit (brown) that gives a bonus (will be decided)the red terit represents the objective (a huge cannon) and it's the only way to attack the engines (bombarding). it also acts as winning objective if it is held for one turn together with all the mana pools. (i initially wanted to trigger the bombard feature only if the cannon is held together with the mana pools but apparently that's impossible)the grey terits start with varying neutral armies and each turn they lose 1 troop.the blue terits are mana pools and they are needed for the optional objective. however make sure you do get that objective once you hold all the mana pools because holding them all means a big negative bonus due to magical unrest. your troops start losing faith in steam power due to too much magical exposure.the white terits are steam and holding them grants you bonus troops. will be later decided how much troops when it comes to balancing gameplay. one thing is worth noting though. holding too many steam terits (2 per engine) will blow up your engine (losing condition) so be careful how you expand.

basically there will be 2 ways to win the map1. get steam, expand, get the mana pools and huge gun and hold for 1 turn to win2. get steam, expand, get the gun, conquer another engine, get more steam, expand more until all enemies are dead.

don't worry about the symmetrical layout. i just put some circles to have a starting image. the thread is more about the idea itself. once i get things rolling and feedback starts coming i'll work on the number of terits propose some bonuses and connections and once the gameplay is started i'll work on the graphics.and speaking of graphics, in case you haven't realised from the title or the description so far, i'm planning a steampunk map

Click image to enlarge.

Last edited by DiM on Wed Sep 14, 2011 4:21 pm, edited 58 times in total.

“In the beginning God said, the four-dimensional divergence of an antisymmetric, second rank tensor equals zero, and there was light, and it was good. And on the seventh day he rested.”- Michio Kaku

DiM, welcome back with a new proposal.Another addition to the " Age of..." Series.I like the concept with steam having that "too fast" expansion component, and the manna pools with the negative bonus....Looking forward to further developments; of course the graphics will tell all as you develop them.

too be honest i've already started working on a few graphics mainly because i need a nice image to put as my sig. hopefully i'll whip up something this evening to at least give people a feeling of what the map will look like after the sig is done i'll spend some time arranging terits and connections to start the gameplay discussion.

PS: in case anybody is kind to answer i'm curious how the map making process takes place now. from what i've seen i have to put the idea in the melting pot, then it is moved to the drafting room, then to gameplay > graphics > final forge > beta > quench.but who decides when an idea is good and moves it to the drafting room? and can i work on graphics if the map is still in the drafting room? and is gameplay still changeable once i get the badge for it?

“In the beginning God said, the four-dimensional divergence of an antisymmetric, second rank tensor equals zero, and there was light, and it was good. And on the seventh day he rested.”- Michio Kaku

A steampunk map! Sounds great! Been a fan for a while now, and it'll be awesome to see how unique this could be. I'm pretty sure the above would be possible, doesn't USApocalypse use something similar for the radiation territs?

You weren't around when I was making the first 2 of my map pack... when I was making the first map (Orient Express) I asked people for suggestions for a name for the map pack, there was even a vote I think, and people liked "Age of Steam" the best... so I can shift the blame a little...

Welcome back to mapmaking DiM. If you need any ideas or tips, I've made my own steampunk map present in the sig. The idea itself is sound, and since R&C got an exception to go 6, if you justify it well you should be good.

As cairns said, <overrides> tags make that a piece of cake.

One major mapmaking change is that we now have the authority to make a map supersize if its concept justifies the extra space. Smalls can go 1000x800 and larges can go 1400x1200. So if you could do 8 players with the larger sizes, thats a possibility. I get the impression that you specifically want the map to be 4p, so we'll have to wait and see the full concept.

Process-wise, it's fairly similar to the way it was in 2008-09. Now that you've got a functional draft up I'll be moving Age of Steam over to the Drafting Room after I post this. After you get a Draft stamp it's the same gameplay-graphics-XML you remember. The major difference is that maps quench to Beta status first, leaving you liable to making changes as balance requires, and when all those concerns are handled (~1 month later), quenched for good.

thanks for the input mate. i think i'll stick to 2-4 players and regular map size on this one as there aren't too many territories so far.i will try to take advantage of that supersize map thing at a future date with another map.oh, and thanks for moving the map

“In the beginning God said, the four-dimensional divergence of an antisymmetric, second rank tensor equals zero, and there was light, and it was good. And on the seventh day he rested.”- Michio Kaku